How the Survey Was

CIO Insight designed this vendor management survey together with Advantage Business Research Inc. (advantageresearch.com), a Lake Success, N.Y.-based supplier of custom research services. IT executives gathered from a number of sources, including third-party lists and other Ziff Davis Media publications, were invited to participate in the study by e-mail. The questions were posted on a password-protected Web site, and 305 qualified respondents (145 from companies with 1,000 employees or more, and 160 from companies with between 50 and 999 employees) replied from Aug. 6 to Aug. 21, 2002. All qualified respondents described themselves as knowledgeable or very knowledgeable about their company's IT vendor management processes, and held one of the following titles: CEO, CIO or chief technology officer; senior or executive vice president of information technology or information services; vice president of information technology or information services; vice president of IT strategy, planning, networking , communications, operations or technology; or assistant vice president of information technology.